Trying to bring up a child amid the constant media glare is definitely not like taking candy from a baby. Although, sometimes it does involve having to literally do so.

That's something Katie Holmes learned firsthand when pics popped up on the good old Internet of daughter Suri holding a box of gummies shaped like male genitalia. Not surprisingly, rumors ran rampant that Mommy had actually purchased the X-rated items for her little one.

During an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show set to air on Friday, the actress explains the embarrassing event.

"Recently, I took her to get ice cream in New York at this place called Serendipity that we go to all the time. It's for kids. The clientele is children," recalls Holmes. "We go in and we are waiting for a table and she grabs some gummies that are boy part gummies. I was horrified."

And, perhaps out of fear that Suri might be watching, Holmes proceeds to get more specific about the product by simply spelling it out .

Obviously sensing that this could very well lead to not just a really bad Kodak moment, but an awkward birds-and-the bees kind of chat, Holmes quickly took action to get them out of her daughter's hands and back where they belonged.

"She was holding the box and I was like, 'OK, wow we don't need that right now,' " she tells DeGeneres. "Because I thought if I said put that back and then she's going to say, 'What is this?' And I really didn't want to have that conversation."

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